Royals fans with even a passing interest in the upper echelons of the football pyramid will have had an eye on the unfolding saga at Liverpool FC regarding the former manager Brendan Rodgers.

Rodgers was sacked by The Reds on Sunday after a run of poor results, culminating with a 1-1 draw against rivals Everton.

"There was endless tippy-tappy short passing, carried out by players like Brian Howard who were not really equipped to play that way."

Reading fans may have seen a number of warning signs over the early part of this season which mirrored Rodgers’ short-lived and deeply unsuccessful time at the Madejski Stadium .

I truly believe, as a supporter, had Sir John Madejski not made the call in December 2009 to sack Rodgers Reading would have been relegated, which would’ve been an utter disaster.

Fortunately, Sir John saw what all the fans were seeing and realised something needed doing.

Rodgers was given the boot and replaced by Brian McDermott, and you know the rest.

Rodgers in his final Liverpool game (Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

A great choice (at the time)

Rodgers was appointed manager of Reading amid much hype following the departure of Steve Coppell in 2009.

At the time he was seen as a great choice, a young, up-and-coming manager who’d done well at Watford and had worked under none other than Jose Mourinho at Chelsea.

As it transpired, it wasn’t a great choice and while he managed to last for three years at Anfield, including guiding them to second place (with the substantial help of messrs Suarez, Gerrard and Sturridge), he only lasted six months here.

Here are some memories of his time at Reading.

Strange tactics

One of the strongest memories I have of Rodgers’ time at Reading was the bizarre tactics he’d employ.

He’d talk endlessly about his “world class vision” for the club.

What apparently this meant was to have the team playing like they’d been introduced in the car park before the game.

Brendan Rodgers at Reading

There was endless tippy-tappy short passing, carried out by players like Brian Howard who were not really equipped to play that way.

Also, there appeared to be a distinct “absolutely no shooting” policy.

Game after game went by with no goalmouth action, although we did have Gregorz Rasiak playing a lot of the time.

You knew under Rodgers if you went behind, you’d lose (unless the utterly brilliant Gylfi Sigurdsson won the match by himself, which happened a few times), and quite often you’d lose if you went ahead.

Liverpool fans have complained about Rodgers’ negative tactics of trying to sit on a lead, and it was the same at Reading.

Reading v Watford. Brendan Rodgers and Wally Downes

Rubbish signings

The list of Rodgers’ signings for Reading includes Rasiak, as well as Shaun Cummings, who developed into a half-decent squad player but was very much a rabbit in the headlights during his early years at Reading.

Names like loanee Darren O’Dea(r), the massively disappointing and deeply dislikable Matthew Mills (for £2 million) and Brian Howard did not set the world on fire.

Rodgers did sign future skipper Jobi McAnuff, but generally, his signings were short-lived and distinctly average.

Darren O'Dea: One of Rodgers' rubbish signings

Reds fans will no doubt have a similar list, Fabio Borini, £7 million for Iago Aspas, £20 million for the much derided Dejan Lovren and, of course, £16 million on Mario Balotelli.

Meaningless soundbites

I remember a Europa League match a few seasons ago which Rodgers described as a “near on perfect performance”.

Was he referring to a win over Inter Milan? Or a brilliant, backs-to-the wall, 1-0 win at Sevilla?

Nope, Liverpool losing 2-0 to Russian side Zenit St Petersburg

He was at it all the time at Reading too.

You could tell he’d worked under Mourinho as Reading’s terrible performances and defeats were always down to factors beyond his control.

Brilliant performances which but for the ref/the opposition goalkeeper/defensive errors would have led to easy wins.

At Reading and Liverpool he talked of his “death by football” philosophy.

The idea is keeping the ball for as long as possible so the opposition can’t get it.

At Reading, it was more like “death by boredom” as Royals’ players tippy-tappied it around before losing it.

The only excitement was the fear caused by the inevitable opposition attacks and goals.

Rodgers as a player for Reading in 1991

Liverpool fans can say at least they had one brilliant season of wonderful attacking football which, thanks to the most unfortunate of slips by Steven Gerrard vs Chelsea, narrowly saw them miss out on a long-awaited Premier League title.

We at Reading weren’t so lucky.

We got frustration, boredom, defeats, no shots, management-speak and a way of playing everyone in the ground could see wasn’t suited to the playing personel.

After leaving Reading, Rodgers did very well at Swansea and there’s not much doubt he’s earned the chance to manage a big club.

But it’s not worked, and I’m sure I’m not the only Royals’ fan who has seen it coming and doesn’t have too much sympathy for “football’s David Brent.”